


Nekuia

by Andraste



Category: Blake's 7, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Community: multiverse5000, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-01
Updated: 2005-09-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 18:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andraste/pseuds/Andraste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cally is offered help by an unexpected ally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nekuia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KerrAvonsen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KerrAvonsen/gifts).



"You cannot communicate with the living by shouting at them."

Cally snapped around instantly. It said something about the life she had been living that she instinctively reached for a weapon she was not carrying. He was the first person who had been able to see her since ... well. Shooting him would probably be redundant, even if it were possible.

"Who are you?" she asked, her tone deliberately wary. He was – or at least appeared to be – an old man, wearing a neatly trimmed grey beard and a long brown robe, but she had become wary of appearances.

"Someone who heard you cry out." He smiled at her, but Cally was not reassured. Perhaps sensing this, he elaborated. "Like you, I no longer walk in the world of the flesh. I am called Obi-Wan Kenobi. Do you have a name, lady?"

Cally was not anybody's lady, but responded politely anyway. "Cally. My name is Cally."

Obi-Wan Kenobi nodded. "How long have you been here, among the dead?"

She considered. "I'm not sure – a day, two at the most."

She had – not awoken, precisely, but come back to herself – above the bunker, to find the others gathered around a campfire. She'd greeted them, and been confused by their lack of response, until she realised that they were talking about her death.

They had been deaf to her words, and unable to feel her touch, and eventually she had been forced to accept that she had not been miraculously transported away from the explosion. That she was dead. Perhaps this man was, too.

"I'm impressed," Obi-Wan said. "It takes many of us a long time to obtain the unity of thought that you have found so quickly. You must have a good reason to wish to speak with those still bound to their physical forms."

She gestured towards Avon and Dorian, who obviously could not see or hear either of them. "That man is pointing a gun at my shipmate. Avon thinks he understands what danger he's in, but he has no idea. I haven't been able to communicate with them at all."

She had thought that Vila, perhaps, whom she had known so long, and whose pain she had sensed at a distance before ... but even he had deaf to her entreaties. She had watched him drink the glass of wine Dorian had ordered laid out for her, and then many more, and gloomily concluded that the alcohol could not be enhancing his capacity for extra-sensory perception.

"This Dorian seems like an unpleasant fellow," Obi-Wan said. "I can certainly see why you would have liked to warn your friend about him."

"He's much worse than he seems now. I've seen what's in his cellar."

Cally had seen from the beginning that Dorian was not what he appeared to be, and had feared for her companions even when they seemed to have the upper hand over him while taking his ship from Terminal. She had soon found that she could follow him unseen, and had quickly discovering his true purpose. A pity she had not been able to tell anyone.

"It seems that I shall, too, if you intend to follow him."

Cally and Obi-Wan followed as Dorian forced Avon down the long spiral staircase into the depths of his canvernous retreated. His plan sickened her – being united in a perversity of telepathic union would be a far worse fate for her companions than death – she could attest to the fact that this was far less unpleasant than many feared.

"You must have noticed by now that your friends are not able to understand you, and there is nothing you can do to help them," Obi-Wan said, "and yet you show great determination in following them."

"We have travelled together for a long time, and faced many enemies," Cally explained. "We – they – are wanted by the Federation, as political rebels." At least, they had been rebels, once upon a time. Cally had not been sure what they were of late.

"I know nothing of this Federation," he replied, "but it has a certain familiar pattern to it."

"If you have never heard of the Federation, you must be a stranger indeed. Where did you come from?"

"Distances are meaningless here." he said, "but I am afraid time is not. I came to you to offer my assistance, but you will need to come with me."

Cally hesitated, watching as Avon moved ever downwards into the dark. "I can hardly leave them like this."

"They must have a talent for getting themselves out of trouble as well as getting into it, if they've survived any length of time as rebels."

"Not always." She thought of Gan, and of Blake, and of course of herself. "I am proof of that. I only wish there was a way that I could help them."

"I can tell that your mind is a strong one. If you wish, I can show you how to speak to them."

Cally felt the heart she no longer had leap in her chest. "There is a way to warn them?"

"Perhaps, if they have the ears to listen. It is a complex discipline, but we have all the time we need."

"But _they_ may not have time! If you know how to speak to the living, can't you warn them about what's waiting?"

Obi-Wan stopped walking down the stairs, and regarded at her seriously. "You will soon learn that those who still walk in the world must take care of themselves. For the most part, we can only watch."

She had already learned that, in the hours since her death, and the idea filled her with despair. To be always alone and silent was her worst nightmare.   
"They are all I have had to care about," she said.

"There are others, are there not, who you once cared for?"

Cally's hope was more tentative this time. "You mean ... my people? My sisters?"

He smiled. "Yes. That was how I recognized you - the minds of your people were strong, and many of them survived the transition from the flesh, as you and I have have. For those such as us, death is often only a change of state."

Her people. Her sisters. Not living, but not gone. The thought was almost to big for Cally's mind to contain.

"If you wish to see them," Obi-Wan said, "you cannot remain here. You must leave your friends now if you are ever to learn how to communicate with them again." She hesitated, and he seemed to read her mind. Perhaps he could, at that. "Some day, they will join you."

It was wrong of her to wish for it to come quickly, but compared to what Dorian might do to them when he reached the bottom of the staircase with Avon, it would be merciful. "I know, it is only –"

"I know," he said gently. "We all miss those left behind us, as they miss those gone before."

Cally watched Avon, walking downwards into the dark, Dorian's gun behind him. Whatever waited for him down there, it was not something she could help with. Glancing up, she saw Vila, following at a careful distance, and decided that it would have to be enough. "I am ready," she said.

Obi-Wan Kenobi held out a hand to her. "Then come. We have another path to walk on now."

Cally took one more look at the companions who had shared her journey for so long, and then she turned away to follow another road.


End file.
